ISSS+2015

=[|International Society for the Systems Sciences]= =ISSS2015 Berlin, Germany : August 2 - 7, 2015=

Governing the Anthropocene: the greatest challenge for systems thinking in practice?
The **59th Meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences** will be held in **Berlin, Germany, August 2 - 7, 2015**.

Conference registration site will open on Saturday March 7.

Conference co-hosts, Ray Ison (ISSS President) and Louis Klein (ISSS Vice President for Conferences), extend an invitation to join us in Berlin from the 2nd-7th August 2015 for a conference that:


 * challenges systems thinkers, researchers, practitioners, scientists to reflect upon what they do, or might do, in governing the Anthropocene;
 * creates an opportunity for you to contribute a paper or papers relevant to the conference theme and which fit within the ISSS SIGs (special interest groups) and other themes that are being planned;
 * enables you to experience the ambience and excitement that is Berlin.

Already we have attracted a lot of interest so do try to make your arrangements early.

The [|call for papers](and submission website) is now open. Please click [|HERE] for the Journals submission information page.

For those not familiar with the overall framing of the conference: ‘**//Governing the Anthropocene: the greatest challenge for systems thinking in practice?’//** then you are invited to visit these sites:

Visit Anthropecene at []

And Berlin is already leading the way in exploring the implications for us all of ‘Governing the Anthropocene’: see []

A feature of the 2014 conference will be a number of embedded days or special themes. There will be an ASC day (American Society of Cybernetics) and a number of thematic strands offered in conjunction with systems, or systems-orientated groups such as the Systems Dynamics Society, INCOSE, AEA (American Evaluation Society) and the International Sociological Association RC51 “Sociocybernetics”. As the program continues to develop and firm-up we will keep you posted via the conference website.

A few keynote speakers have been confirmed – we will update details as planning proceeds.

A large hotel venue is not that common for ISSS. However this year the [|Scandic]has been able to offer a very enticing package for the conference venue, meals and very reasonably priced accommodation. They have a developed sustainability strategy which accords with the overall conference theme.

A few important facts are:

1. Special ISSS pre-conference Workshops will be held on 2nd August (although there may be requests to start some on the 1st) - we do not yet know how many there will be

2. The ISSS conference begins in the late afternoon of 2nd August with a reception.

3. The conference has been traditionally divided into half days with one half day in plenary and one half day devoted to concurrent sessions (except the final day, i.e. Friday) – this basic design will be retained.

4. The proposal is to have concurrent sessions comprise the ISSS Special Interest groups (SIGS) + special themed sessions e.g. ASC, etc. Some themed sessions will act as a one day conference equivalent e.g. ASC and keynote speakers will be 'shared'.

5. If we are successful in obtaining funding we hope to have an associated PhD program (maximum of 30) attracting 4 or 6 Credits (in conjunction with WINs (Workshop of Institutional Analysis of Social-Ecological Systems), Humbolt University– if we obtain the funding we will let you know.

We look forward to seeing you in Berlin, and hope that you will save these days and consider presenting a paper at this meeting.

Ray and Louis

Paper abstracts of ISA RC10 members and friends in alphabetical order of the last name of the first author:
School of Social and Policy Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia = = Educating children and young people on how to care for the environment is the focus of this paper. Today’s children will encounter the adverse effects of global population growth and subsequent pollution by adults at the expense of the environment. Thus it is important to draw children’s attention to carbon footprints and climatic changes. Through participation they will have opportunities to learn more about the implications of the way we choose to live our lives in the short, medium and long terms. Children learn about their rights and responsibilities by being given the opportunity to express their ideas and to translate policy into practice through small scale interventions that make a difference to this generation and succeeding ones. Such interventions can include lessons on recycling, use and re-use of resources, composting, organic and ethical farming, water and energy conservation techniques and much more. The essence of this paper has been extracted from my Participatory Action Research (PAR) on the life chances of children and young people in institutional care in Sri Lanka. This PAR largely employs qualitative investigations to manipulate the information collected during the study in order to assess and evaluate the findings. During the PAR, it was identified that some children’s homes have initiated a few enhanced ecosystem governance practices that redress problems associated with the worst aspects of industrialisation. These practices promote the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature and have adopted the concerns of critical systemic thinking with consequent improvement of human well-being and ecosystem health. The potential of these homes to provide education for these vulnerable children by improving their ability to deliver stewardship responsibilities towards the environment should never be underestimated. Keywords: Anthropocene, children’s homes, participatory action research, ecosystems, critical systemic thinking, stewardship responsibilities, capacity building, capabilities.
 * Eshantha Ariyadasa:**
 * EDUCATING AND EMPOWERING CHILDREN FOR GOVERNING THE ANTHROPOCENE: A CASE STUDY OF CHILDREN’S HOMES IN SRI LANKA**

This paper aims at contrasting an African model of the human person with the philosophical individualism that founds profit driven transnational capitalism. Scientific humanism is based on a hypothetical “individual in the state of nature” with the possibility of contracting relationships willingly. Reason, freedom and will are at the centre of philosophical debates which describe this “individual” as autonomous. Scientific humanism acknowledges that humans beings are in principle equal although evolutionary theories postulate differences in mental and technological development across cultures. Scientific humanism claims to liberate human persons from arbitrary supernatural powers. However, it institutes the domination of some humans by other humans by claiming that the lower levels of scientific and technological development in some societies is not a sociological phenomenon but an ontological phenomenon linked to lower intellectual, moral and aesthetic qualities. These argument are found in colonial anthropological literature where distinctions are made between the “civilised” and the “savage” and qualities of reason and rationality are restricted to wealthy white males. (Chuckwudi Eze) Scientific humanism violates the principle of equality on which it is founded by advocating an Olympic-like model of the //ubermensch//, a human being with godly qualities, capable of conquering nature through science and technology and subjugating “inferior” races. Although scientific humanism is a naturalist theory, it makes human beings enemies of nature ad humanity because it leads to unrestrained exploitation of natural resources and people with less financial, military and technological might. The Africa concept of //ubuntu// emerges as a possible alternative to scientific humanism. Ubuntu implies assuming one’s humanness through the recognition of the humanness of others. John Mbiti conceptualised Ubuntu through the formula “I am because you are, and since you are, therefore I am.” //Ubuntu// premised on solidarity, reciprocity and mutual responsibility. In Western philosophy, the closest to //Ubuntu// in advocating mutual recognition, solidarity, and responsibility is the thought of Emmanuel Levinas on the face of the other serving as a mirror where I gaze on my own humanity. Being human is not an essential quality depending on one’s being born from the //homo sapiens//. //Ubuntu// implies a process of social and spiritual integration in order to achieve harmonious relationship with other humans both alive and dead. While theories of human development in the West (Piaget, Erickson, and Maslow) focus on the development of the individual through processes of assimilation of externally provided values and models, //Ubuntu// of being integrated in a community of meanings and practices. This is achieved through various initiation rituals at birth, puberty, matrimony and reproduction, and death. In modern postcolonial context a Western and capitalist-minded person would perceive this rituals as cumbersome and unnecessarily expensive. Ubuntu can be premised on a dynamic and integrative epistemology which acknowledges the material and natural aspect of objects but also their cultural value and symbolic significance. The symbolic significance of objects is at the origin of human culture and communication since humans can use these objects as intermediaries (media) for their own interaction. Dynamic and integrative epistemology does not define the human person by isolating minimal or essential qualities such as reason, freedom and will that are believed to constitute an immutable core, or by separating “mental” from “physical” processes. It recognizes that human physiological processes are an essential part of an integrated but differentiated pattern and this pattern makes human living possible by maintaining the human internal environment within certain limits though metabolism and homeostasis but also by interacting with the human immediate and mediated environment. Human living is then essentially linked with the human person natural relatedness.
 * Biqirami**: Scientific humanism, nihilism and //ubuntu//

Ph.D. candidate in Agricultural Sciences
 * Claudia Stephanie Coral Guerra:**

Humboldt University of Berlin Faculty of Life Sciences Department of Agricultural Economics Invalidenstr. 42 10115 Berlin Email: coguerrc@cms.hu-berlin.de


 * Analytical framework for a systemic analysis of drivers and dynamics of historical land-use changes: a shift towards systems thinking **

Research on land-use changes in Ecuador and the world has focused on developing models that focus on a spatial dimension. However, this research proposes a shift towards Systems Thinking, specifically a mix of soft system methodologies to capture the motives behind land-use decision making; in addition to understand the interconnections between system’s elements and its dynamics in relation to the environment. The objective of this paper is to introduce an analytical framework helping to analyse the land-use change dynamics.

This analytical framework is grounded on the assumption that social systems are linked to their specific ambient ecological system so that that both systems jointly form a co-evolutionary, self-organising unity. Most importantly, land-use choices are heavily influenced by drivers such as: social constructions and needs; values and emotions; and the personal history of each decision maker. Many of these factors, related to the individual and its cognitive system, have not been taken into account in the land-use research. The purpose of this research is to contribute to relevant evidence for the design of land-use alternatives that respond to the community aspirations. For this purpose, the analysis of the decision-making process of the land owner or land manager is the starting point to derive different system perceptions and collective decision-making processes. Furthermore, as recognised by the systems thinking approach and for the purposes of this paper, the land use system is dynamic, meaning that the state of the system changes over time and purposeful; hence the system itself can produce the same outcome in different ways as the landowner or land manager exercise choices. A historical approach is used to recognise this changing state, because land-use change does not occur evenly, neither temporarily nor spatially. Human history is a fundamental part of the human present, in the way that it allows us to understand meaningful human actions and decisions. These decisions are reflected in the landowner and land manager mental models -cognitive representations of external reality.

This analytical framework will be tested in Ecuador, focusing on three recent periods in the history of Ecuadorian forest landscapes, which will guide us to a historical analysis and interpretation. Protected forests in Ecuador are mosaic landscapes that range from primary forest to pasture. They are governed by varied institutional settings that respond to the aspirations and needs of decision makers with conflicting values. Hence, they constitute room for understanding dynamics of space, time and human choice AssistantProfessor, Amasya University Amasya, 05100, Turkey Email: oktay.eser@amasya.edu.tr Workaddress: Amasya Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Akbilek Mah. Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu Cad. No:7, Postal Code: 05100, Amasya, Turkey
 * Eser, Oktoy**: **Contributing toSustainability through Translation in Governing the Anthropocene**

There are many factors that contribute to changes in the Earth’ssystem, one of which is humanity. Due to the loss of habitat related to human activities, slightly less than a quarter of Earth’s terrestrial biomes are untouched.We seem to be living in a transition period from the Holocene epoch into the Anthropocene epoch. We are faced with many and diverse kinds of environmental changes that have been taking place. It is apparently a new phase in the history of humanity as well as the planet Earth which is being shaped by human forces and natural forces. The Earth that we live on is a permanently changing system. It is changing irreversibly through human activity, which will leave a substantial trace in the geological record of the Earth’s history. Some of these changes are permanent, even on a geological time scale. Since the beginning of the 19th century, there has been a rise in the number of human beings from under a billion to over six billion now. A rapidly growing population has had a global impact on the environment and made the exploitation of natural resources soar. There have been major changes to the Earth in terms of landscape and biodiversity. As a consequence of the global impact of human activities, sustainability of the Earth in the age of the Anthropocene has important implications. This could pose a potential threat to biodiversity and international peace apart from geology. As a force of nature, humanity needs to act responsibly in order to compensate for the human impact on the environment and engage in processes that will re-shape a future that is morally acceptable. All global human initiatives are about people working together across different languages and cultures around the world. Social sciences can also play a part in understanding the Anthropocene. Therefore, I will focus on how trans lation could help to coordinate international initiatives and communicate more effectively in order to address the Anthropocene. Better communication will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of global initiatives. This will result in human action changing from uncoordinated individual action to coordinated social action at either local or global levels. Coping with (governing) the challenges of the age of the Anthropocene will require a collaborative effort taking into account multilingual communication. Keywords: Anthropocene, Translation, Sustainability, Multilingualism

**Eshanta Loku**: Systemic Integration of Renewable Resources for Governing the Anthropocene

**Para- Luna, F.** : **THE ANTHROPOCENE PROBLEM AS AN AXIOLOGICAL DISEQUILIBIRUM ** <span style="font-family: "CG Times","serif"; font-size: 16px;">Presidente de la Sociedad Española de Sistemas Generales,Madrid, Spain, What does it mean that we have an anthropocene problem in the world? It means that the value of “Conservation of Nature” or the “ecological problem”, is under performed in relation with other goals of society. But the real problem is that an adequate conservation of nature depend of the rest of the universal human values that inevitable are associated with it. Which are these values?. According with a certain Reference Pattern of Universal Values (RPUV) are the following nine: Health, Wealth, Security, Knowledge, Freedom, Distributive Justice, Conservation of Nature; Quality of Activities, and Moral Prestige. Among these goals of society there is always a dialectical relationship where a better performance of the value “Conservation of Nature” may lead to a decrease of Freedom, Wealth and other values. That is why to imagine any kind of solution for the anthropocene problem can be only seen as related to the other values.

Department of Adult Education University of South Africa Email: quanbkp@unisa.ac.za
 * Kofi Poku,** **Quan-Baffour**: A Systemic view of the Value of Environmental Conservation: The Case of Bono Takyiman, Ghana

From a systemic point of view it can be understood that the physical environment is important to every living being because it supports and protects life. It contains the ecosystem of which humans, animals and trees interact. All living organisms depend on the environment for survival. With the increase in world population, pollution, and climate change, environmental conservation has become the dominant concern of everyone: individuals, communities, nations, governments and international organisations. From time immemorial the indigenous people of Bono Takyiman in Ghana have depended on their cultural beliefs and practices to conserve the physical environment. Although the indigenous conservation approach of the Bono is based on traditions, the practice is in tandem with modern scientific methods of environmental protection. In fact the indigenous people seem to be ahead of others in environmental awareness and the general concerns of environmental degradation. Using the relevant literature on environmental conservation, this paper discusses two major approaches which the indigenous people of Bono Takyiman employ in protection of the environment. In the paper I set out to share with others from so-called developed and developing countries alike this indigenous orientation to saving the environment. I discuss the worthiness of the approach and I consider lessons that can be learned from it for our way of addressing the Anthropocene. Key words: systemic, physical environment, indigenous, anthropocene, conservation

Flinders University Janet.mcintyre@flinders.edu.au <span style="color: #002f60; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://vocaroo.com/i/s03QQ2jfkxmh
 * McIntyre-Mills**, Janet:<span class="wiki_link_ext">Ecological footprint and governing the anthropocene through balancing Individualism and Collectivism

The current way of life is unsustainable (Papadimitriou, 2014) and in a bid to maintain the status quo – profit is extracted from people and the environment.

The challenge of scaling up efforts to engage people in an alternative forms of democracy and governance is that currently the response to social, economic and environmental challenges is that internationally politics is being shaped by so-called realist politics (Beardsworth, 2011) based on a) competition for resources, b) the notion that profit and loss, win and lose is contained /carried by ‘the other’ and c) Huntington’s ‘clash of cultures’ thesis rather than an understanding of our interlinked, co-created and co-determined fate. Keywords: consumption, accountability participation, governance, stewardship

School of Social and Policy Studies Flinders University GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia 5001 Email: keith.miller@flinders.edu.au
 * Miller, Keith**: Balancing individualism and collectivism in an Australian aboriginal context

Epochs have occurred throughout the history of the earth. A move from one epoch to the next can be considered to occur when there is a major transition which has a geological impact on all of life. A transition from the Holocene to the Anthropocene is now considered to have occurred in about the year 1800 with the Industrial Revolution. Dramatic changes to global conditions have occurred in a little over 200 years since then, with the consequent impact on the environment and all living things. Along with a geological change, a cultural transition has occurred. An individualistically oriented style of thinking has come to prominence with an objectification and exploitation of the environment. Yet, amongst Indigenous cultures, this change has not taken place. They retain a collectivist style of thinking and behavior and a deep respect for the land and all it contains. One of the values we can gain as participants in the Anthropocene is a recognition of these different types of knowledge existing in cohabitation, a comfortableness with an individualistic and relational identity occurring alongside each other. How much more valuable for this epoch to become an inclusive era when the collectivist perspectives from Indigenous cultures are appreciated alongside individualistic perspectives of developed nations? Keywords Anthropocene, individualism, collectivism, Aboriginal, Indigenous, cultural transition

**Juliane Mendelsohn, Thea Sveen**: Hertzbergstr. 13, 12055 Berlin jkmendelsohn@gmail.com

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This paper analyses the relationship between risks, crisis scenarios and the law as well as the normative challenges and tools of detection and responding to uncertainty. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Notable sociologists and system theorists such as Ulrich Beck, Talcott Parsons and Cass Sunstein have put forward adequate descriptions of societies and social systems that are ever more determined by an all-encompassing climate of risks and risk taking. Due to incredible amounts and different degrees of uncertainty, risk and the nature of risks pose a specific problem to the law and legal theory. Such theories deal not only with the normative foundations of defining and categorizing risks and risk scenarios, but also with the establishment of procedures and institutions to deal with them. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Systems and institutions dealing with risks either impose extensive procedures for the identification and capturing of risks (communications between agencies, early warning systems, stress tests) or create political super-structures (such as the Security Council or the IAEA) in the hope of mitigating risks. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The tri-crises we are facing in Europe today (energy security, climate catastrophe and financial instability) have been met with both extreme proceduralisation and recently the creation of the Banking and Energy Union. The development of ever-larger institutional frameworks in both sectors, labeled as 'Unions', is an attempt to create institutions that are large enough and procedures that are complex enough to deal with risks previously ignored or perceived as externalities that ultimately caused the crises. This paper compares the procedures and structures that have been put in place with the creation of both the Banking and the Energy Union. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The critical question, however, remains, whether the creation of these political super-structures can lead to sufficient substantive changes in order to overcome the cognitive dissonance that led to the crises in the first place. Each of the tri-crises we are dealing with – energy security, environmental catastrophe and financial instability – were caused by false incentives and a willingness to ignore risks that are deeply embedded in everyday economic and policy truisms. In most cases the economic assumptions and incentives that caused the accumulation of unsustainable amounts of risks have not been sufficiently challenged or overturned: we still believe in the magic of financial mathematics and openly embrace the culture of financial capitalism; just as we still believe that the reliance on fossil fuels and the abuse of the environment is the primary way to secure our economic future and political independence.
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Risks, Crisis and the European Law: Implications and Parallels for Addressing Financial, Energy Security and Environmental Catastrophe **

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Since each of the causes of these crisis and risk we are dealing with are not a result natural necessity or of circumstances we cannot control or mitigate, this paper questions whether the proposed methods and tools are sufficient, or whether the existence of these risks does not need to be challenged on a more fundamental basis. Parallel to creating an abundance of laws and super institutions, this paper tries to re-envision the role of the law and the European Union in creating a future less prone to catastrophe.

**Romm RA, Norma**: Foregrounding critical systemic and indigenous ways of collective knowing towards (re)directing the anthropocene 17 De Friedland Street  Capital Park   Moot, 0084   Pretoria   South Africa   Email: norma.romm@gmail.com This paper begins with the understanding that the global commons is under threat. In the light hereof I consider why it is important to appreciate Indigenous styles of collectively-oriented knowing, where selves are understood as “selves-in-relation” to one another and to all living and non-living things, as part of the web of life. I suggest that often accounts of the Anthropocene (as proposed by various authors postulating this concept) do not accentuate how the forcefulness of human impact on the world (by virtue of humans manipulating and extracting resources) can be regarded as rooted in Western-oriented supposedly rational styles of knowing and calculating, which to date have been historically dominant. This approach to knowing and being-in-the-world is ill-equipped to incorporate a conception of our existing as humans //in relation to others//, including to all that exists. Indigenous thinking as expounded by various Indigenous authors across the globe (which I define as I proceed with the paper) starts with the premise of connectivity of life forces, and therefore with the assumption that we, as humans, //are called upon to play a responsible role in our caring for each other and for the earth//. Working in terms of the notion of care does not mean that we are less rational, but on the contrary that we recognize that our existence is contingent on our supporting, and being supported by others (including non-living entities). This in turn implies an attitude of respecting how “individual” well-being is a function of the well-being of the whole. Based on these considerations, I propound in the paper that planetary stewardship //should not be envisaged as applicable only now that we have entered the epoch named by some as the Anthropocene//, where the human power to manipulate the environment has become a global geological force in its own right. Instead, we need to question the way in which this power has hitherto been used, and the (dominant) worldview that enabled the use of such power as a manipulative enterprise. Such questioning allows us to //reconsider the values in terms of which the Anthropocene can be approached,// by taking on board—and indeed foregrounding—Indigenous views, and bases, of stewardship. The paper concludes with some considerations of how diverse knowledge systems can be brought into communication/integrated towards enhanced ecosystem governance. Keywords: Systemic challenges, Indigenous collective knowing, Ecosystem governance, Anthropocene

**Wasson, Christina and Julia Gluesing**: A Wicked Methodology for the Analysis of Wicked Problems: Integrating the Analysis of Meetings and Networks Department of Anthropology University of North Texas 1155 Union Circle #310409 Denton, TX 76203-5017 USA christina.wasson@unt.edu One feature of the Anthropocene is the rise of large-scale environmental problems produced by human actions. A pressing problem is how to manage these environmental problems effectively. Their governance is often challenging because different stakeholder groups disagree on what the appropriate course of action should be. Furthermore, the problems are often complex, and scientific knowledge about them may contain significant gaps and uncertainties. We are interested in understanding the most challenging of these situations, which are often termed “wicked problems,” and what effective environmental governance might look like under those conditions. In this paper, we report on a new, integrative methodology we have developed for analyzing governance processes by examining communications both within an environmental decision-making group and across the stakeholder networks within which the group is embedded. Shaped by a systems perspective, our methodology weaves together multiple theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, forms of data, and levels of analysis. Very few previous studies have closely examined the actual decision-making process in participatory meetings, or situated these meetings in the broader stakeholder network interactions within which they are embedded. Our approach redresses this significant gap in the literature. For our field site, we selected a commission that was formed to develop recommendations for a new municipal ordinance on hydraulic fracturing (fracking). In order to preserve the anonymity of the commission, we do not identify the geographic region in which the commission was located, other than to say it was in the United States. Fracking exhibits all of the features associated with wicked problems, including multiple stakeholders with conflicting values, scientific uncertainty, and political complexity.

1103 Fortune Ctr, 48 Yun Ping Rd, Causeway Bay, HK, Hong Kong. ISSS@EC-Balance.org []
 * Thomas Sui Leung WONG, E C Yan HUANG**

Thousands of protests are conducted every year in Hong Kong and 99% of them are finished peacefully. Every protest has to be sanctioned by the police force beforehand with approval of the time, place and estimated number of people, ensuring safe and peaceful conduct of the protest. In 2014.09.28, a protest was conducted strongly disputing the controversial nomination-support-election process of the CE (Chief Executive) of the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region). The violation of the timing, location of the protest, number of people involved, and the heated emotion of the crowd, forced the police to use tear gas to disperse the crowd for safety reason. However, that resulted in the occupying by the protesters of three main highways in three different districts for one whole month. Within the whole month on the highways, innumerable verbal and physical abuses were exchanged between the occupying crowds and other parties including the police force, government supporters, highways shop owners, highways road users, and residents in the affected neighborhood. And within the whole month, lots of arguments arose between family members and friends who took opposite sides, supporting or denouncing the speeches and actions of the occupying crowds, political parties or the government. This resulted in the breakdown of lots of social groups including family circles, clusters of friends, social media groups, friends in Facebook, and even the breakdown of some family ties. The above description of the incident is of course the representation of some observers. It is hoped that the description is not a reductionistic one but it is impossible to provide a complete God's eye viewpoint due to the defeat in human dependency on observations through differentiation. This unsanctioned occupation as a form of protest has become a pattern of expression for freedom of speech, which threatens the stability of the political, economic and social systems. The balance between the individual’s right of freedom and the society’s collective interest of stability, has become the major controversy in Hong Kong, which has been also the 'wicked problem' in the field of system theory. This paper employs the Chinese ancient system theories in Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), in order to understand the reductionistic conflicts between individual freedom and collective stability, and to investigate the possible systemic resolutions. The five Confucian virtues system theory of Humanity, Justice, Etiquette, Wisdom and Trust（仁義禮智信）and the five elements system theory of Wood, Metal, Fire, Water and Earth (木金火水土) in Taoism, are employed to correlate with the modern four independent power systems of executive, legislative, judicial, and the media (執法，立法，司法，媒體）in the governance of modern societies. The imbalance between the five Confucian virtues in modern societies requires corresponding regulations of some of the five sub-systems to regain the balance. The four Nobel Truth and the five systems mental system in the teaching of Buddha are employed to analyze the observer and decision-making components of the individual system, as well as the collective system. Desire or love is the intention behind all kinds of bodily, verbal or mental actions. Passionate love will only generate strong desires and hatreds resulting in wars, corruptions, and discriminations. Ignorance would only result in agitation and chaos. However, only the unconditional kind of love would result in resolutions with best consequences. The differential diagnostic-cure process (辨證論治) in TCM is employed to investigate the possibility of applying it in the whole diagnosis process, state identification, and strategy formulation process for the modern four independent power systems. A systemic analysis can only allow observers to understand the situation better, and for the decision-makers to understand the opportunity cost, and the consequential responsibilities they would face arising from the different decisions they have made. In the end, there is no perfect resolution that would make everyone happy. This observation and decision-making process is a continuous improvement process, resembling the same five element system cycle itself. The ultimate importance is the driving force behind the decisions rather than the decisions themselves. That is, whether a decison is based on passionate love (desires and hatreds), respectful love (negotiations) or unconditional love. In the terminology of ancient Greek, whether it is Eros, Phileo, or Agape. Keywords: 2014 Hong Kong 928 protest, Buddhism, Confucianism, Five systems of human mind, General System Theory, Health and system thinking, Taichi Yin-Yang System Theory, Taoism, Buddha's teaching, Traditional Chinese Medicine differential diagnosis-cure process, executive-legislative-judicial-media
 * Systemic resolutions for the Reductionistic conflicts - a case study of the 2014 Hong Kong 928 protest**